Laurel tornado upgraded to F2 after further review of damage, National Weather Service says

A tornado touched down outside Laurel early Monday morning, knocking down trees and pulling up roofs as it carved a path of destruction through the area. 

The tornado was initially ruled an F1, but after further review of the damage, it was upgraded to an F2, which is stronger and causes more destruction overall, National Weather Service meteorologist Sarah Johnson said.

The Weather Service is still working to document the path of the twister. 

The tornado started northwest of Laurel about 3:38 a.m. and ended near Hardscrabble. It had an estimated maximum wind speed of 120 miles per hour and its path may have been up to 400 yards wide at one point.

The funnel traveled 6.2 miles from Woodland Ferry Road northeast to Pepper Road, destroying a barn and uprooting trees, the National Weather Service said. A tree also fell on a house, leaving one man with minor injuries. 

He was taken to Nanticoke Memorial Hospital in Seaford, officials said. 

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On Seaford Road near Laurel, the blue childhood home of Scott Phillips seemingly marked the starting point of some of the worst damage.

Phillips, who lives in the house with his 91-year-old father, said he heard a large boom in the middle of the night, likely from a maple crashing into the roof above his bedroom.

In the front yard, only one of two pin oak trees that his parents planted around their wedding day in 1946 survived. The other fell toward the road, not the house, revealing a more than 6-foot-wide root system that cracked the asphalt of his driveway and uprooted chunks of his lawn.

“It’s like it started right here,” said Phillips’ brother Kevin Phillips.

Scott Phillips said the storm left a 1- or 2-foot wide hole in the roof over the attic. 

Down the road, debris and tree limbs were scattered along the roadside. A mangled irrigation system could be seen off in a field, providing the backdrop for emergency and utility crews trying to restore power.

The Phillips brothers and their neighbor Mike Smith said they lost power during the storm and do not expect it to be restored until Tuesday. Downed power lines were slung on the side of the road hours after the storm had cleared.

Meanwhile, businesses along the nearby highway that escaped damage struggled with a lack of connection for their credit card machines. 

Rumors of a tornado confirmed

The Laurel Volunteer Fire Department headed recovery efforts after the tornado, with the fire station acting as a staging ground for various state and county agencies. 

The full extent of the damage has not yet been determined, the fire department said. The American Red Cross was on site providing assistance to residents. 

Alarms started going off about 3:45 a.m., said assistant fire chief Mike Lowe, whose dog started crying and woke him up. 

Lowe said he had never seen a storm like it. He is a lifelong resident and has worked for the fire department for more than 30 years. Other residents said the same thing. 

The Laurel School District closed for the day, while Sussex Technical High School in Georgetown shut down at 11 a.m. due to electrical issues from the accompanying line of thunderstorms. 

Chip Guy, the public information officer for Sussex County, said at least a dozen, and possibly as many as two dozen, buildings were structurally damaged. That number is extremely fluid.

"This is more than just a couple pieces of siding," Guy said. "In some cases, parts of roofs have been sheared off." 

Joe Thomas, director of the Sussex County Emergency Operations Center, estimated at least 20 residents had been impacted on some level. 

He said Sussex County residents should call 302-856-7366 to report storm damage. The amount reported could affect potential state and federal funding for the area's recovery. 

U.S. 13 was closed for part of the day. About a dozen other side streets remained closed or partially Monday afternoon.  

In Kent County, things were less severe, and there were no injuries reported. 

Chief Colin T. Faulkner with Kent County Emergency Management said two houses were hit by trees or tree limbs: one on Whispering Oak Drive in the Milford area and on one Marion Drive in Dover. 

There were no 911 calls related to the power outages. 

“You would think we were in bad shape the way this storm sounded when it came through last night," he said. "I think all the counties had wires down, which is not uncommon when you have wind.”

“I think we escaped pretty good." 

A.J. Schall, director of the Delaware Emergency Mangement Agency, was in Laurel Monday morning helping assess the damage. Ironically, he said, this is Severe Weather Awareness and Preparedness Week in Delaware. 

During the event, residents are encouraged to make family emergency plans, sign up for emergency alerts and put together emergency supply kits. 

Find out more at PrepareDE.org. 

Tornados not uncommon

Severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings were issued for Delaware by the National Weather Service early Monday morning. 

"There was a line of thunderstorms that pretty much caught the Appalachians overnight and crossed into the state of Delaware, roughly between 2 and 5 in the morning," said Jason Franklin with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, New Jersey.

He said there was heavy rain and isolated rotating winds. 

On Facebook, some said they saw the tornado. They posted pictures and shared stories, even as the National Weather Service worked to confirm its existence. 

DelmarvaWX, a Facebook page run by Hunter Clifton Outten, who identifies himself as a meteorological scientist and storm chaser, was posting updates during the storm. He is self-taught and does not have a degree in meteorology, according to a recent blog post. 

State Climatologist Daniel Leathers said Delaware sees about one tornado each year. Since 1954, there have been 63. 

One of the most destructive was June 7, 1988. Thirty people were injured in a tornado that started in Middletown and had a path of 23 miles. 

“It’s really not unusual at all this time of year,” he said, pointing to the clash of cold air from Canada and warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean as the culprit for tornado-producing thunderstorms overnight.

That atmospheric clash is also what causes most of the area’s tumultuous, stormy weather this time of year.

“Most of our tornadoes have a small path … and don’t stay on the ground very long,” he said. “But if there’s a chance for severe weather, people should take a look and take it seriously.”

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Contact Jessica Bies at (302) 324-2881 or jbies@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessicajbies.